Health care overhaul negotiations to exclude Republicans

House and Senate Democrats intend to bypass traditional procedures when they negotiate a final compromise on health care legislation, officials said Monday, a move that will exclude Republican lawmakers and reduce their ability to delay or force politically troubling votes in both houses.

'The president and his leaders in Congress don't care about the public's position on government health care,' Sen. David Vitter said.

The unofficial timetable calls for final passage of the measure to remake the nation's health care system by the time President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, probably in early February.

Democratic aides said the final compromise talks would essentially be a three-way negotiation involving top Democrats in the House and Senate and the White House, a structure that gives unusual latitude to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

These officials said there are no plans to appoint a formal House-Senate conference committee, the method Congress most often uses to reconcile differing bills. Under that customary format, a committee chairman is appointed to preside, and other senior lawmakers from both parties and houses participate in typically perfunctory public meetings while the meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors.

In this case, the plan is to skip the formal meetings, reach an agreement, then have the two houses vote as quickly as possible. A 60-vote Senate majority would be required in advance of final passage.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., raised objections to bypassing the usual conference committee process to resolve differences between House and Senate bills.

"Such a process would further illustrate that the president and his leaders in Congress don't care about the public's position on government health care," Vitter said. "It will essentially allow for a bill that will affect one-sixth of our economy to be written behind closed doors by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. That's not open, transparent or in tune with the change the president campaigned on. Instead, it would be Washington at its worst."

"I've been pretty up-front about how bad a deal I believe this legislation will be for Louisianians -- seniors, small businesses, taxpayers and our state budget," Vitter said. "We can better address critical needs like pre-existing conditions, buying insurance across state lines, prescription drug reimportation and generic drug reform, tort reform and allowing small business to pool across state lines to buy insurance in five separate, focused pieces of legislation."

The issue is so partisan that only one Republican, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of New Orleans, has cast a vote in favor of the legislation.

GOP leaders have vowed to try and block a final bill from reaching Obama's desk. "This fight isn't over. My colleagues and I will work to stop this bill from becoming law," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Republican leader, said shortly before the Senate cleared its version of the bill last month.

Both houses have already passed legislation to remake the health care system, extending coverage to millions who lack it while cracking down on industry practices such as denying insurance on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

There are literally hundreds of differences between the two bills, a House measure that ran to 1,990 pages and a Senate version of 2,074, not counting 383 pages of last-minute changes. The biggest differences involve a dispute over a government-run insurance option -- the House wants one, but the Senate bill omitted it -- as well as the size and extent of federal subsidies to help lower-income families afford coverage.

Congress plans no formal sessions until Jan. 19, but Pelosi intends to meet this week with key committee chairmen and other leaders, and a separate meeting is also planned for members of the rank and file.

David Espo of The Associated Press wrote this report. The Times-Picayune contributed.